“There’s no other country in the world that can compete with us,” Biden said Wednesday, Feb. 19, in Granite City to hundreds of supporters of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – an economic stimulus package aimed at saving and creating jobs. “One of the most critical parts is to continue to invest in infrastructure so we can have the most modern infrastructure in the world.”

The event marked the recovery act's fifth anniversary.

Other speakers featured were former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, U.S. Rep. Bill Enyart (D-Illinois) and Gov. Pat Quinn.

The governor emphasized that a “J-O-B” for all people willing and able is what lends a hand to growing infrastructure.

“If you are breathing, we want you working,” he said, adding the state looks to get jobs for “people here in Illinois.”

“If you remember five years ago, our President, Barack Obama, inherited an economic disaster,” Quinn said. Obama and Biden “said to America, ‘the only way to really get out of this economic ditch is to build.’”

Obama signed ARRA into effect in hopes to provide temporary relief programs for those affected by the recession and to invest more money in education, health, renewable energy and infrastructure.

The event’s site, America’s Central Port, has obtained $14.5 million through the ARRA in 2011 and 2010 by way of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants.

The money has funded the port’s South Harbor project, where new levee relief wells and 9,600 feet of track of main line rail were built for the venture, according to the port’s website.

The port also is responsible for $282 million in annual economic impact and directly or indirectly supports more than 1,450 jobs.

Biden said there is no way public sectors could have provided money for projects like America’s Central Port.

“Without (TIGER funds) providing the seed money, there’s no reasonable way it could have been done,” Biden said. “There is no doubt that every dollar in public investments and infrastructure has a multiplier effect on job growth in private-sector investments. Folks, these are the kinds of investments we should do no matter what, even if we are caught in a recession.”

LaHood said once the stimulus package was signed into law, the president asked Biden to “make sure the money was spent correctly.”

Biden met with the cabinet once a week to talk about the stimulus package and how it should it be spent. He “held our feet to the fire,” LaHood said.

“For two years at DOT, we had $48 billion,” he said. “You never heard one bad story about a controversial project. What you heard was ‘spread the word,’ in southern Illinois, in central Illinois and all over the country.”

The vice president cited Illinois’ favored son, President Abraham Lincoln, as one who knew how to build infrastructure when times and travel were changing.

He said $400 to $500 billion were spent on tens of thousands of miles of rail when train became the means of transportation.

“It’s the oldest story in the history of the world,” Biden said. “Build, build, build the most modern infrastructure in the world and the world will come to us.”